c macchina rossa home of the red car una notizia …
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UNA NOTIZIACASA DI MACCHINA ROSSA HOME OF THE RED CAR
VOLUME 26, NUMBER 1 THE ALFA ROMEO OWNERS CLUB OF OKLAHOMA JANUARY, 2012
Events
Inside
Happy New Year, 2012!
Welcome to a new Alfa Year! Enjoy a look back at 2011 while you think of events to put on our 2012 calendar. The first event is one designed to add to your Alfa col-lection. Peg Neely is hosting the Alfa Club at her home in Edmond Jan. 14. She will have Alfa Stuff for sale and
some to give away. The sale items include wheels, significant Alfa parts, tools, engines, models, posters, books and dealer signs. If you’d like to caravan over, meet at the Bristow exit on I-44 at 10:30. We’ll have lunch at a barbecue restaurant recommended by Peg. And we’ll have a chance to wish Peg the best as she begins a new chapter of her life in Florida. The second event on our 2012 calendar is the planning session for this year. Keith and Gail Kelly are hosting a chili lunch, beginning at 1:00 p.m. Please bring side dishes. RSVP to Claudia at [email protected]. Romeo and Giulietta is scheduled for Feb. 11. Volunteers are needed for appetizers, soup, salad and entree courses. Joan and Les Niedell will host the dessert. Last year was full of fun events. Bring ideas to make this year just as full or more. Some ideas have been suggested: the Talimena Drive, Gramps Garage in DeSoto, Kansas. Bring your ideas to our planning session or email them for consideration. Join us for another year of Alfa Adventures. See you at an event soon.
The view through Ignacio Salas-Humera’s windshield as he wait s his turn for the Sunday morn-ing autocross in Eureka Springs, Oct. 23. Scott Fowler waits in line directly ahead of Igna-cio. (Photo by Ignacio Salas-Humara)
Les Neidell, Steve Kernyansky and Keith Kelly check the line up and times during the Club Kart race April 17.
JANUARY14 Alfa Stuff sale, Peg Neely, 6000 Covey Lane, Edmond.
22 2012 Planning Session, Keith and Gail Kelly, 4004 E 88th St, Tulsa. 1:00 p.m.
FEBRUARY11 Romeo and Giulietta
Member News 2
New Look 2
Cover Alfa 2
Holiday Party 3
Alfa Avengers 4
Alfas in the Bluegrass 9
2 Una Notizia, January, 2012Member News
Welcome to new mem-bers: Alan Perlingiere, 1724 S Evan-
ston, Tulsa, OK 74107; 918-743-8222; [email protected]; Ron and Nancy Hunt, 42845 W 11, Terlton, OK 74081; [email protected]; Roger Potts, 8317 Lowanda Drive, Little Rock, AR 72205; 501-590-4152; [email protected]; Garry Stotts, 2509 Robin Rd, Midwest City, OK 73110; 405-314-9038. New address for Randy and Katia Vissers: 12310 Skyway Dr, Anchorage, AK 99515-3233. Happy news from Diana Bennett. She writes: Chemo is going well -- have my 3rd of 6 sessions this next week. No serious side effects -- just annoy-ing ones !!! Am actually feeling better than I have felt in a while cause the surgeons fi xed what was making me feel so bad. Now, we just have to get rid of these pesky cancer cells and all should be fi ne. Keep me (and Bernie!!) in your prayers. We are planning on Spring Fling and Eureka.
Alfa Vanity Plates Available
Peg Neely has not re-newed the Giulia and Alfa license plates that belonged to Russ. They are now
available for another Oklahoma Alfa owner’s use. Car Blog
John Hansford invites Alfi sti to remember their fi rst car and to share the memories on his blog: http://www.myfi rstcar.
Check out the Janu-ary, 2012 issue of Sports & Exotic Car. You’ll prob-ably recognize
the Alfa on the cover: Les and Joan Neidell’s GTV6. The ac-companying article begins on p. 18 or you can read it online at: http://www.hemmings.com/hsx/stories/2012/01/01/hmn_feature1.html
New Year, New Look
AROCOK’s design guru, Scott Fowler, is redesigning our website: www.arock.org. He’s hoping to have the new design up by the end of January. Here’s the Club’s new logo:
Cover Alfa
2012 Calendar Dates
Although our cal-endar planning meeting hasn’t been held yet, two dates are already
scheduled: •February 11. Romeo and
Giulietta, our annual pro-gressive dinner in honor of Valentine’s Day. Joan Neidell has volunteered for the des-sert course. Volunteers are needed for appetizers, soup, salad (may be combined) and the entree. Romeo and Giulietta is one of our best-attended events and hosting a course adds to an already-fun event. Email Autumn Perlingiere ([email protected]); Claudia Oswalt ([email protected]) or Eileen Simmons ([email protected]) to volunteer. •Nov. 2-4. Fall Fling in Eureka Springs. Because Inn of the Ozarks was completely booked for every October, 2012 week-end, Fall Fling has been moved to the fi rst weekend in Novem-ber.
me/. Read the posts and join the fun. You’ll recognize some of the contributors.
Una Notizia, January, 2012 3Holiday Party:
December 3 at Dilly DeliHolidays, food, friends, fun were made for
each other. All of the above were evident at the Holiday Party Dec. 3 in downtown Tulsa. Twenty-five Alfisti gathered to celebrate the season with good food and good conversation, although since Dec. 3 was also Bedlam, Alfisti watched the game intermittently, a painful expe-rience for the OU fans. The evening’s highlight was Dirty Santa, played to the sound of laughter and witty comments.
Dani Perlingiere holds up the contents of her Dirty Santa gift: fun dog toys.
Peg Neely and Da-vid Sim-mons laugh as Robin Kernyansky tries to give away the wine glasses her husband Steve chose in the first round.
Julie Perlingiere opens a Dirty Santa gift buried deep in tis-sue paper.
JR Purvis, Mercedes Millberry and Trent Fowler enjoy an ani-mated con-versation.
Ron and Nancy Hunt enjoy the festivities.
Ann Vogel smiles as she opens an interestingly labeled gift.
Karl Schmid pulls a gift from a bag during the
Dirty Santa exchange.
4 Una Notizia, January, 2012
Alfa Avengers: Fall Fling, 2011FRIDAY, OCT. 21Our Fall Fling adventure started Thursday after-noon with the arrival of Ignacio Salas-Humara and Dinah Zike from Texas. After a trip to Tulsa with Karl and Rosie Schmid for dinner at Sigi’s, Karl and David proceeded to inspect Ignacio’s 1958 Veloce. The script on the cam cover was painted black. That would never do. So Karl got a file, David held the light and the script was returned to its original state. The next morning, we left in a caravan of three Alfas: the Simmons Zagato; Ignacio and Dinah’s Veloce and Karl and Rosie Schmid’s 1978 Spider. We met the other Alfisti at Quik Trip and after a proper amount of parking lot visiting, we headed for Eureka Springs.
David Simmons holds a light while Karl Schmid files the cam cover to return Ignacio’s Veloce to its proper state. (Photos by Ignacio Salas-Humara)
Pre-trip visiting in the Quik Trip parking lot: Les Neidell, Ignacio Salas-Humara, Joan Neidell, Dinah Zike, Claudia Oswalt, Morgan Oswalt.
The trip from Tulsa to Eureka Springs was fast and fun over the usual route from northeastern Oklahoma into Missouri and down to Eureka Springs. Missouri Highway 90 is an excellent Alfa Road, although slow traffic sometimes caused Alfa drivers a bit of frustration! We arrived at the Inn of the Ozarks and went about setting up the Hospitality Room, hosted again this year by Claudia and Alan Oswalt. It wasn’t long before we were greeting friends from the Kansas City and St. Louis chapters, opening bottles of Adult Beverages and getting caught up
on the latest news, Alfa and otherwise. David and I headed out to make one last check of the rally and then joined a group for dinner at Ermilio’s.
Holding their registration packets, a group of Kansas City members chat outside the hospitality room: Bob Christian, Jolene Justus, Marilyn Ellis, Darreld Ellis and Jhon Fitzgerald.
Una Notizia, January, 2012 5
A sure parking lot conversation starter is an Alfa with Even more exciting is an Alfa with its hood and its trunk lid up and needing some expert assistance. Dinner was followed by popcorn and a movie: a
viewing of “Dead Man’s Treasure,” from the 1967 season of The Avengers. Although not required, viewing was recommended as background for Saturday morning’s rally.
SATURDAY, OCT. 22 Saturday morning, Alfisti gathered in the park-ing lot to get rally instructions from Rallymaster David Simmons. The weather was perfect—as it was all weekend and rallyers asked plenty of questions. We timed people out in two-minute intervals and then headed downtown for some shopping. The shopping trip was short because rallyers began returning after only a couple of hours—probably a record. They reported having a great time on the rally. St. Louis members Rich and Janet Hirsch listen atten-
tively to rally instructions Saturday morning. Behind them are Mike Houser of the St. Louis Club and Phyl-lis and Bruce Tilden from Kansas City.
Oklahoma Alfisti pay close attention to rally instruc-tions: Rosie Schmid, James Perlingiere, Mary Harris, Doug Harris and Keith Kelly.
6 Una Notizia, January, 2012Because of the way the rally was laid out, we expected and got many ties. The tiebreaker was scheduled for the banquet Saturday night—slot car races, the “electrifying finish” to Dead Man’s Treasure. The catch was that the navigator had to race the slot car while the driver watched. The resulting races were as competitive as any on any track and with more crashes. Drivers and naviga-tors appeared to have a lot of fun.
Phyllis Tilden is ready catch the slotcar just in case her husband and naviga-tor Bruce sends if off the track. He did!
Gail Kelly gets ready to race as David Simmons puts the slot car on the start/finish line and Keith Kelly enjoys himself.
Sue Houser is ready to race as husband Mike is poised to catch the car if it leaves the track.
With a steady hand, Ron Hunt races a yel-low GTV slot car.
Alan Oswalt holds the yellow GTV slot car which wife Claudia apparently spun out. David Simmons checks his stopwatch.
Una Notizia, January, 2012 7SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23The perfect weather continued Sunday as we woke up to the sound of Alfas getting ready to race around the lower parking lot in the annual autocross. James and Jamie Perlingiere did their usual spectacular job of setting up the autocross, which drew many spectators, Club members, ho-tel guests and people interested in watching cars go around orange cones.
Walking the course before driving it is highly rec-ommended. Claudia Oswalt, Morgan Oswalt, Alan Oswalt, David Simmons, Les Neidell, Ignacio Salas-Humara and Glen Beckerdite check it out.
Karl Schmid waits for the “go” signal from Jamie Perlingiere and Alan Oswalt.
Mercedes Millberry, Mike Houser, Mary Harris, Laura Greason and Jhon Fitzgerald watch the autocross ac-tion from the upper parking lot.
Jamie Perlingiere and Glen Beckerdite enjoy a parking lot conversation during the concours.
Another parking lot conversation during the concours involves Alan Oswalt, Scott Fowler, Trent Fowler, and Mercedes Millberry.
8 Una Notizia, January, 2012
Autocross: Top to bottom: Robert McKinney waits in line; Scott Folwer, James Perlingiere and Ignacio Salas-Humara on the course.
After the autocross, the concours. Rosie Schmid pre-pares the Schmid Spider for display, When the autocross was finished, the orange cones were quickly gathered and the concours began: a long line of Alfas, reaching from one end of the parking lot to the other. Alfisti wandered through the display with ballots, admiring the cars, talking to the owners and enjoying the beautiful autumn weather.
The group adjourned to the awards brunch, the official ending of Fall Fling, 2011. We ate lunch, applauded the trophy winners, made announcements and said our good-bys. Fall Fling, 2012 is scheduled for No-vember 2-4. Mark the dates on your calen-dar and plan to attend another fun-filled Alfa event in the Ozarks. A line of spectators watches
both the line up and the ac-tion on the autocross course.
Una Notizia, January, 2012 9
A sight to gladden the hearts of Alfisti everywhere: a long line of Alfas, glistening in the autumn sun.
Joan and I had high expectations - the Callaway Twin Turbo was finally ready. The night before we were to leave I took the packed car out for a final “around the block” trial and the air conditioning failed - for the fourth or fifth time! Since the temp was over 100, and the forecast for Kentucky was the same, a switch had to be made. But the back-up, the supercharged GTV6, had the wrong wheels on it. And Joan still remembers the spectacular supercharger belt failure in this car that occurred at the Portland convention that not only disabled the supercharger but the lights and the a/c. Working well into the night I readied the supercharged car. And it performed superbly - not a hiccup and over 20 miles per gallon for 1786 miles. Unlike previous conventions, our participation was limited. Joan and I did not join in the pre-convention tour. And, after the track event was moved to Indiana, about 4 hours distant from Lexington and requiring an overnight stay, I withdrew from time trials. It simply wasn’t fair to Joan for me to indulge myself and relegate her to Lexington, KY while she waited for my return. The convention hotel, Crowne Plaza, was adequate. At one time it must have been the belle of Lexington, but now, surrounded by strip malls, and fronted by a medical center, it had lost much of its charm. Our room was tiny, the bathroom even more so. When Joan has to sit sideways on the toilet to avoid having her knees hit the bathtub one has to wonder about the architect who designed the space. We only ate the two convention meals at the hotel. The banquet food was dreadful - that’s the only printable word one can use to describe it. The awards brunch was adequate. Overall, the hotel was quite a contrast from the Holiday Inn that served as convention headquarters last year in Frederick,
MD. There the hotel rooms rated Motel 6 minus, but the food was absolutely wonderful. In terms of parking, the Lexington organizers learned from the mistakes of the 2010 convention - a dedicated, secure parking lot was reserved for attendees - although it proved to be too small. The car wash facility was basic - one hose and no supplies. Somehow, the organizers missed this one. Obtaining a sponsor for this is not difficult. Overall, I would give the organizers a B+.
Lexington, KY is in the center of Blue Grass country, renown for horse farms, racing and bourbon. For us it was old hat - our son, Jason, lives in Kentucky and we had done all the tours that the organizers had scheduled.
Now - on to the highlights. Pre-convention tour. When I asked Bernie & Diane Bennett about it Bernie’s first words to me were “You would have hated it.” He went on to explain that it was badly run. For example, the tour scheduled a stop at a museum, only to find after they arrived that the museum was closed that day. And a barbeque at a bourbon distillery never materialized because the organizer never confirmed it. The tour director understood the word “tour” literally, each day several hundred miles were scheduled. Jolene Justus was not
Alfas in the Bluegrass2011 AROC Convention
by Les Neidell
happy with it, but David and Susie Small and Peg Neely all gave the tour a “thumbs up.”
Time trials - apparently went superbly. Undersubscribed, probably due to the difficulty in getting there, so everyone had more than adequate track time. Glenn Gaudin, of Heavy Metal Alfas, continued his unbroken streak of failure in this event, this time apparently running a main bearing in his GTV6. Glenn, how do you manage to do this? So Glenn parked his trailered car in the Alfa parking lot and provided all attendees with a couple of days of musical entertainment. This is the stuff that Joan and I feast on at the conventions - the camaraderie that transcends the worst hotels and the poorly organized events. When the organizers also do a good job the convention becomes memorable.
Vendors also make or break a convention. Here again a good job was done - with most of the vendors in one large room. There seemed to be a lot of action in the vendors rooms, but one of the participants told me it was the worst convention yet in terms of sales. Before this, the worst convention he had had was ours in 2006. That was surprising, because total registrations for this convention was over 400 people, far surpassing the number we had.
Following a movement that was established last year, this convention featured a substantial number of rallies. Included was a rally school that lasted about three hours. Since Joan and I don’t “do” rallies together I cannot comment on how their quality, nor did I ever get a count of
participants. At least this year’s rallies were not cumulative, each one could be entered whether or not one ran the earlier one(s).
The autocross ran very well. George Schweikle made it fun and was superb in his handling of the usual problems that arose. For example, one car had four drivers, and obliging this family (mom, dad, daughter, son) was done smoothly. The course was long and narrow
10 Una Notizia, January, 2012
Una Notizia, January, 2012 11and crossed over itself twice. It seemed okay when I walked it, but my 72 year old brain and reflexes proved inadequate. David Small actually ran onto the course during my second run and pointed the direction to me. As you might suspect, I reverted to my usual dismal performance, finishing last in class. I had high expectations after last year’s event, when I finished 5th best time overall. That, of course, was a fluke.
The concours was held in conjunction with the Keeneland Concours d’Elegance, a nationally known event. As part of the experience private tours of the Keeneland paddock and clubhouse were available. It’s nice to see how the “other half” spends its leisure funds. The location was superb, the variety of cars unusual - and overall a great event, EXCEPT for the lack of participation by Alfa owners. Only 50 Alfas pre-registered, and some of these were slated for the Keeneland display, leaving a very sparse exhibit of concours Alfas. Some arm-twisting occurred, and eventually about 70 Alfas were presented for judging, but were scattered throughout the hilly terrain. Because of the low number of entries many concours classes were amalgamated. For example, all sedans and coupes from 1975 on were combined into one judging class. If
one wanted to see a concentrated display of Alfas the place to go was the Alfa Corral, a segregated parking lot for Alfa owners. I think it’s time the Alfa board starts rethinking the concours. During my two years on the board I found the leadership to be conservative and unwilling to augment substantial changes, which is the principal reason I didn’t run again. My suggestions about reinvigorating the concours were stone-walled.
This is the second time in the past few years that the Alfa concours was partnered with a national event. The previous occasion was Detroit and Alfas as part of the Meadowbrook. I feel this adds immeasurably to the convention experience, but it does tend to dilute the Alfa focus. Of course, one can obtain this Alfa experience by hanging out in the dedicated Alfa parking lot at the hotel. One plus to being associated with a national event - some Alfas are shown there whose owners do not participate in the convention. This is unfortunate, but at least some relatively rare cars become available.
Perhaps the most memorable event was a Sunday morning drive on private roads in the Bluegrass region. We visited an exceptional horse farm and its stables. This is currently owned by an Arab family who uses it as a residence when they visit the Keeneland horse auctions. Otherwise the incredibly elaborate barns sit vacant, as the family moved its breeding enterprise to another farm.
Next year the Alfa convention is an international event - in Toronto. Now’s the time to get your passport & begin to prepare. It would be nice to caravan with other Oklahoma Alfisti.
12 Una Notizia, January, 2012
Membership Application
Name
Address
City State ZIP
Phone email
Tell us about your Alfa(s)
Dues are $65.00/year, renewable on anniversary. Send check and application form to June Mustari, 4128 E. 37th Place, Tulsa, OK 74135.
Director - Jamie Perlingiere918-872-7355
Social Directors - Autumn Perlingiere918-872-7355
Claudia Oswalt918-407-1227
Webmaster - Trent Fowler918-599-7322
Una Notizia editorEileen Simmons
Treasurer - June Mustari918-747-7671
Director - Larry Johnson918-445-8678
Director - Alan Oswalt918 407-1227
Director - Scott Fowler918-749-6075
Director - Trent Fowler918-599-7322
Officers and Board Members
President - David Simmons918-865-4957
Vice President, Tulsa James Perlingiere
Vice President, OKCRuss Neely
405-340-1228In Memoriam, 1948-2010
Vice President, ArkansasJeff Lang
Secretary - Keith Kelly918-852-0220
The happpiest event during 2011 was the ar-rival of Toly Arutunoff at our July 4 party. Here he shows off his new leg to a group of happy Alfisti: Phyllis Tilden, Ann Vogel, Alan Oswalt, Karl Schmid, Jeff Lang, Rosie Schmid, Claudia Oswalt, Joan and Les Neidell.
Anthony Nigro, Scott Fowler and Alan Oswalt check out Alfas in Ollie’s parking lot after a breakfast meeting.